Step Three: Grow – Grow is about helping you to live out a life that is Spirit-led, Bible-based, and prayer empowered, through worship, relationships, small groups, and service.

 

Why we’re called Methodists: Methodism was not intended to be an independent church or denomination. Originally, it was a spiritual renewal movement intended to revitalize the churches of 18^th century England and America. 

 

Its founding leaders, John Wesley, George Whitfield, and others, were first called “Methodists” because of their very methodical way of helping new Christians mature in their faith.

 

Their method consisted of two ideas, neither of which were new or original, but had been recognized by Christian people for centuries. These two ideas were the use of spiritual disciplines and small groups. We will look at each in the two sections of this class.

 

 

It is God’s desire for us to grow spiritually, for us to become spiritually mature, and for our heart and character to become more like Christ.   But many Christians are unclear about how growing mature in Christ is supposed to happen. Some Christians leave spiritual growth to chance, hoping that by accident or by God’s own mysterious ways, they will simply wake one day to find themselves holy and fully formed Christians. Others think that if they just try hard enough, by their own good intentions and efforts, they will be able to develop into the kind of person God wants them to be. 

 

God’s design is different from both. The Christian life should not be formed in a haphazard way. It takes attentiveness and intentionality. But on the other hand, spiritual maturity is not something God has asked us to bring about by our own resources and strength. Instead, God has provided a pattern for us to follow. This pattern does not cause growth, but instead allows for growth. This pattern helps us to remain open to God’s grace. By being open to God’s grace, God himself brings about a transformation in our lives. 

 

This pattern for growth is made up of spiritual practices and happens in the context of Christ-centered relationships. Some would call these spiritual disciplines, or means of grace. Some would call at least a few of these sacraments. Others would call them holy habits or spiritual exercises. Whatever we call them, these practices help us to remain open to God. They provide a reliable, predictable, and ordinary way to grow in Christ. For the sake of continuity, we will call them spiritual disciplines for the rest of our time together. 

 

 

 

Jesus has given us some specific practices, through which he gives us his grace. These practices are the vehicles by which we receive further grace. They are the ordinary way of staying open to God’s grace.

 

 

Public Worship – Public worship is about celebrating the greatness of God with our fellow Christians.

 

D. James Kennedy, the former pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church and author of Evangelism Explosion, says, “Most people think of the church as a drama with the minister as the chief actor, God as the prompter, and the laity as the critic. What is actually the case is that the congregation is the chief actor, the minister is the prompter, and God is the critic.”

 

Kenneth Collins writes in his book, Soul Care: “Worship is not a matter of human initiative, but is a response to the grace and goodness of God. Whenever we enter worship, we must be mindful of what God has accomplished. Indeed, a spirit of gratitude and praise is the principle vehicle for meaningful worship.”

 

Prayer – Prayer is learning to be available to God. The late John Paul II said that the issue of God’s availability has already been settled. In the incarnation, Jesus becoming man, God has made Himself available to us. In prayer, we make ourselves available to God. Prayer is about communicating with God. We can use letter writing, singing, talking out-loud, thinking with, and being in the presence of God, and many other forms of communication as ways of praying. 

 

Listening – The book of Psalms says, “Be still and know that I am God.” God still speaks to the human heart, but noise and busyness keep us from hearing Him. Without some time of quietness and solitude, it is nearly impossible to grow in our relationship with God.

Bible Reading- The Bible is the tuning fork, helping us to be able to recognize God’s voice and to sort it out from all the other competing voices in and around us. Not everything that comes to us is from God. The Bible is our measuring stick. God, the author of the Bible will never contradict Himself, and we can trust what the Bible tells us about God’s character.

 

Serving- If you want to find Jesus, try serving others. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells us that when we visit and serve the elderly, sick, broken, lonely, and imprisoned; we will find Jesus. Many spiritual and emotional problems would immediately go away if we would stop focusing so much on ourselves and on our own problems and begin focusing on others.  

 

Communion – Communion is a visible presentation of the Gospel that can be touched and tasted. By coming to the table in faith, we can find Jesus in Holy Communion.

 

Baptism – Baptism is the way God marks us as his own. Baptism can lead to faith or be received by faith. 

 

Fasting – Fasting is the practice of going without food, or other pleasurable things for the purpose of giving more focused time to prayer. The point is not punishing ourselves, but helping us to remember that we have spiritual needs more basic than our need for food. 

Meditation – Christian meditation is the practice of thinking about a Biblical story, image, or idea over a period of hours or days, until we really grasp its meaning for our lives.

Tithing – Tithing is the practice of giving ten percent of our income to the work of the church. Its purpose is to put God first in our finances and to remember that God is the one who provides all that we need.  

Christ-Centered Relationships/Fellowship - Christ-Centered Relationships/Fellowship are friendships which have Christ as their common ground. They are friendships devoted to helping each person grow in their relationship to God.

 

Small Groups/Christian Fellowship - The Christian journey was never meant to be a solo project. We experience the fullness of Christ only to the extent of our commitment to being in relationships with other Christians (see 1 Corinthians 12).

 

Celebration – Celebration is enjoying the life God has given us and praising Him for all that is good in our lives. 

Private Worship – Private worship is about using our daily work or play as an opportunity to praise God. It is about doing our ordinary activities for God’s pleasure.  

Sabbath – Sabbath is the practice of taking regular time for rest and public worship. Regular rest helps us to be renewed by God and to learn to depend on Him when we cannot or are not working. 

Confession – Confession is acknowledging our sins before God and asking for His forgiveness. Though we can make our confessions directly to God, it is sometimes helpful to make a confession to a pastor, counselor, or trustworthy friend.

 

Faith Sharing – Jesus told his disciples to go throughout the world, sharing the good news of God’s kingdom. He also said we would be his witnesses when we received the Holy Spirit. Sharing the message of the Christian faith is a powerful way of participating in Christ’s own ministry and of experiencing the presence of the Spirit’s witness in our lives.

 

 

 

1. Using spiritual disciplines is not the point/goal of Christianity.   They are a vehicle for reaching the goal, which is the renewal of the human heart, so that we might love God and others.

 

2. It is easy to become discouraged about our spiritual growth and to begin believing that we will never grow closer to God by practicing spiritual disciplines. This is especially true of those who find these practices hard to do. But so many times, people give up on spiritual disciplines (because they have grown bored with them, or they seem too hard) just before they experience a spiritual breakthrough.

 

3. Apart from God, these spiritual practices can accomplish nothing. These practices are not magical and have no power in and of themselves. It is the Spirit of God that supplies the power we find in them.

 

4. It is God who has chosen to use these practices to grow us spiritually. They are His method for our growth.

 

5. We do not use spiritual disciplines to earn points with God, and their use alone does not make us good people. They are not a chore we do for God, but a gift God has made available for us.    

 

6. Using spiritual disciplines does not make us acceptable to God. What Jesus accomplished on the cross is what makes us acceptable to God. Salvation comes by grace, through our faith in Christ. 

 

Spiritual disciplines are the way we continue to stay open to grace and the normal way in which God offers us ongoing grace.

 

We receive grace through them, not because we have earned it, but because God is merciful and faithful to meet us through spiritual disciplines, just as he has promised. 

 

7. Spiritual disciplines performed without a heart devoted to God are useless (see Isaiah Chapter One). But, when they are accompanied by an inward transformation of the heart, or when those who do them are open to God’s transforming work of grace, spiritual disciplines are precious to God and powerful tools for renewing the human heart in love.    

 

8. Together, the spiritual disciplines create a pattern of life in which we live in openness to God’s grace and are thus able to grow and mature in our faith as God intends for all people. 

 

9. The spiritual disciplines are not a check list to be completed, and their application will look different in the lives of different individuals. In fact, the application of these spiritual disciplines will look different at different times in one’s own life. At times, certain disciplines will be more emphasized with others being less emphasized, only to be changed as spiritual needs and life circumstances change. 

 

10. It must be remembered that God can work any way He wants. Though He has chosen spiritual disciplines as the normal way to grow Christians, He can give His grace with or without spiritual disciplines. This matter is not up to us, but to God.

 

11. We use spiritual disciplines to seek after God, knowing that nothing besides God will ever satisfy our hearts.  

 

12. When spiritual disciplines become a regular part of our lives, we have to be careful of arrogance and of congratulating ourselves. Spiritual disciplines are a gift from God, not a merit badge to show how spiritual we are.   

 

13. Having confidence in spiritual disciplines is not about trusting something other than God. We believe that we will encounter God in these spiritual disciplines because God has promised to meet us in them.

 

 

 

 

Christian fellowship is an idea found in the New Testament. It literally means sharing a common life with other Christians. We believe this happens best in the context of small groups. 

 

Small groups are a gathering of 4 -12 people for the purpose of creating Christ-centered relationships in which people can be intentional about their spiritual growth. 

 

Small group gatherings often include informal time of visiting, Bible study, prayer, and something we call spiritual formation. 

 

 

 

Spiritual formation is the practice of reporting about our spiritual lives and asking for prayer for ourselves from others in the group. 

 

 

 

1. Confidentiality.

2. Keep it in first person (Group leaders may ask: How can we pray for you?).

3. We are not here to fix each other.

4. We covenant to pray for each other.

5. We firmly but lovingly hold each other accountable.

 

 

 

Three times a year, Grace church makes small group studies available. We encourage you to take advantage of these studies as you are able.